Wiggins a step away from title

BRADLEY Wiggins moved within three days of becoming the first British winner of the Tour de France after successfully negotiating the final day in the Pyrenees and putting further time on his rivals for glory.

Wiggins began the 143.5-kilometre route from Bagneres-de-Luchon to Peyragudes in the yellow jersey for a 10th day and with a lead of two minutes five seconds over Team Sky colleague Chris Froome, with Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) 18 seconds further adrift.

No other rider was within five minutes of the triple Olympic champion and Nibali knew he had to make a move, with Wiggins likely to perform better than him in Saturday's penultimate day time-trial.

But Wiggins, with able support from Froome, distanced Nibali on the finishing ascent.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won the stage, Froome was 19 seconds behind in second place, with Wiggins on his wheel in third.

The final mountain day of the 99th Tour was a late opportunity to eat into Wiggins' advantage.

Nibali made a short-lived move on the descent of the day's opening climb, the 9.3km category one ascent of the Col de Menthe, but was rejected by the seven-man breakaway group, who believed his presence would end their escape.

Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) had beaten Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), his nearest rival for the polka dot King of the Mountains jersey, to the top and did so again on the category two Col des Ares and category three Cote de Burs.

Nibali's Liquigas-Cannondale team led the peloton and kept the pace high on the fiendishly steep Port de Bales.

Four Team Sky riders and Wiggins were immediately behind.

Up ahead Valverde and his team-mate Rui Costa joined forces and forged forward.

Valverde powered on alone and went over the summit 2:25 ahead of the peloton.

Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Costa, who made a wrong turn at the foot of the final climb, were in pursuit of Valverde as the peloton swept up the rest of the day's break.

The tempo set by the maillot jaune group saw Martinez and Costa caught and with Valverde the only rider up the road, Jelle Vanendert (Lotto-Belisol) made a late attempt to catch the Spaniard.

Pinot then took the initiative, stringing out the group in the mist before the short downhill section and the final 3.6km climb to the finish, where Wiggins and Froome enhanced their positions in first and second place overall.